Liko81
Founder's Club Member
imported post
There aremore than a fewreplies here advocating a wheelgun of some sort. I would tend to agree in principle that when it just has to work you want a revolver; with a sixer, there quite simply is no such thing as a failure to feed, eject or cycle, and a failure to fire is solved with another pull of the trigger; the only failure that stops you cold is a squib. In addition, guns of similar frame/grip size generally don't have much more capacity than a revolver would.
However there are some caveats. A snubby is best concealed either in a jacket pocket or in a handbag. Either way, she must never fail to ensure that the revolver is the only thing in there. A pen, pencil, lipstick or mascara, if it makes its way into the trigger guard, can lever the trigger and result in an UD. Similarly, a "pocket rocket" 9mmor "mousegun" 380 or 32 could have the same problem, but those are easier to conceal in pants pockets or other deep concealment measures. It all comes down to how she plans to carry.
As far as caliber, I personally would not go under .380 for defensive purposes, and really nothing less than 9mm if she can easily conceal it (though a Bersa Thunder 380 or Walther PPK is good for deep concealment). Smaller rounds like 32ACP quite simply do not do enough damage to quickly incapacitate an attacker, anything under 32ACP cannot be used to qualify for a CHL, and rimfires like .22s are cheap for a very good reason. I have not yet had a 9mm cartridge fail to fire in over 850 rounds through my Ruger P95 which is my main defense gun. When christening my new Buckmark .22LRI had 2 duds (the pin marked em good and they simply did not fire), 3 squibs (they didn't lodge in the barrel but the gun just barely cycled)and 2 failures to lock back (not enough oomph to hit slide lock). This is not a track record you want in a defensive pistol.Luckily the Buckmark is a paper puncher and can plinker only.
There aremore than a fewreplies here advocating a wheelgun of some sort. I would tend to agree in principle that when it just has to work you want a revolver; with a sixer, there quite simply is no such thing as a failure to feed, eject or cycle, and a failure to fire is solved with another pull of the trigger; the only failure that stops you cold is a squib. In addition, guns of similar frame/grip size generally don't have much more capacity than a revolver would.
However there are some caveats. A snubby is best concealed either in a jacket pocket or in a handbag. Either way, she must never fail to ensure that the revolver is the only thing in there. A pen, pencil, lipstick or mascara, if it makes its way into the trigger guard, can lever the trigger and result in an UD. Similarly, a "pocket rocket" 9mmor "mousegun" 380 or 32 could have the same problem, but those are easier to conceal in pants pockets or other deep concealment measures. It all comes down to how she plans to carry.
As far as caliber, I personally would not go under .380 for defensive purposes, and really nothing less than 9mm if she can easily conceal it (though a Bersa Thunder 380 or Walther PPK is good for deep concealment). Smaller rounds like 32ACP quite simply do not do enough damage to quickly incapacitate an attacker, anything under 32ACP cannot be used to qualify for a CHL, and rimfires like .22s are cheap for a very good reason. I have not yet had a 9mm cartridge fail to fire in over 850 rounds through my Ruger P95 which is my main defense gun. When christening my new Buckmark .22LRI had 2 duds (the pin marked em good and they simply did not fire), 3 squibs (they didn't lodge in the barrel but the gun just barely cycled)and 2 failures to lock back (not enough oomph to hit slide lock). This is not a track record you want in a defensive pistol.Luckily the Buckmark is a paper puncher and can plinker only.